Beginning of a New Fishroom
- Thread starter WarrendaFish
- Start date
So
rry its taken so long. Its been a busy month. 
Over the last 4-5 weeks My prized discus pair has laid on a consistent and regular basis. Once a week. Almost every Thursday I have wigglers turning to free swimmers and every friday morning I have none... So more research had to be done... Losing batch after batch week after week is very frustrating and deflating. But i think I finally figured out what the problem is...
First we thought that one of the parents were eating the babies despite showing great signs of parenting. Such as darkening with extra slime coat, very overly protective, constant monitoring and fanning. I even got attacked by the male. that was a first... i have never gotten confronted by a discus before.. So what i think is causing the mass slaughter of our newly born friends is a microscopic parasite. Not having a UV sterilizer on the system and the parents doing their job correctly and talking to more experienced breeders has led me to this conclusion.
So I started collecting the eggs, dipping them and moving them to another tank off the system.. The first attempt failed cause I'm a dumb ass and used a filter pad from the infected system....
Dummy. But with some success. They hatched and became free swimmers for 2-3 days and then began to die off. Feeding them with pulverized dried brine shrimp and vitamins and a siringe. 4 days after I had removed the eggs a new batch had been spawned... 4 days. Seems amazing to me. So now a second chance. I have set up 4 10g tanks off the system but next to the system so not to clutter my apartment... my girl would give me this look
.. So today the babies hatched some time over night making removing them a little harder... Originally I just removed the rock they were laid on.. Now mom moved them to the sponge filter. Using a wide plastic pitcher I placed the whole filter into the pitcher making sure to keep it submerged. Then dipped in a 5g bucket 2/3 full with 1 ml of "quick Cure" (as recommended by an experienced breeder) for 5 min. Then removed all excess water, still keeping the sponge submerged, and placed it in the 10g off the system. Always being very careful not to shake the babies off. So far so good. This was like 2 hrs ago.
I did the same with angel wigglers as well, but by simply cutting the stem of the leaf they were on and removing it. They were also in the system and hatched over night.
We have 2 more batches of discus eggs from 2 other pairs in the system that will be removed tomorrow. The Red Marlboros laid last night and the electric dreams finally laid tonight after being in the system over 1 month..
Also over the past month my buddy and I have stained and readied the newest rack/system. It still has to be assembled and run.
We have picked up some grow out discus off of craigslist as well.
And the Red Marlboro's (Red Dragon) first batch is now about the size of a nickel. Maybe a little bigger and looking good. There are 75 babies from the first batch.. Not too shabby.
I apologize for the pics being josseled.. gotta get used to the new set up here I guess..
pic 1) some new recruits
pic 2) The bull. the father of the massacred babies. Notice how dark he is from producing the extra slime coat for the kids
pic 3) More new recruits
pic 4) dipping the angel's eggs
pic 5) the 1st attept to save the eggs
pic 6) the new recruits
pic 7) the "red marlboro" or "red dragon" laying eggs while the consistant female looks on from the other tank. We actually ended up blocking off the sides of the tank so they couldnt see each other because we thought the action was causing the babies to get eaten
pic 1) some new recruits
pic 2) The bull. the father of the massacred babies. Notice how dark he is from producing the extra slime coat for the kids
pic 3) More new recruits
pic 4) dipping the angel's eggs
pic 5) the 1st attept to save the eggs
pic 6) the new recruits
pic 7) the "red marlboro" or "red dragon" laying eggs while the consistant female looks on from the other tank. We actually ended up blocking off the sides of the tank so they couldnt see each other because we thought the action was causing the babies to get eaten
Great setup and thanks for sharing. Good up the good work. Im very interested to see how the EBJD do for you. I messed with some a couple yrs ago but was never able to breed a actually blue.
Summer is a busy time for everyone.. Myself included. There's not enough time in the day. But much progress has been made and obsticles over come. Last update my prized pair of discus was spawning on a weekly basis.. Every week for 2 months!!! they would get 1-2 days free swimming, and then disappear. But Finally they got it right! I now have about 100 baby discus about 2 weeks old. Just separated from their parents today!! My PIC has the original batch I will show some pics of a pure strain of Red Marlboro. They are about 2 months I think.. And they have a second batch of about 40 that are 2 days ahead of mine so about 16 days old. All already starting to show color!! So early..
So here are some pics of the prized couple with their first successful spawn... so far. Now its up to me.. I will post a video as well of the new fish room and the new additions..
So here are some pics of the prized couple with their first successful spawn... so far. Now its up to me.. I will post a video as well of the new fish room and the new additions..
